Skoda Rally Blog

Today was the Mini Tempest Stages 2008, at Longcross, the great test track near Bracknell (just next to the M3), in Ray Read’s Audi Quattro Turbo – me nagivating for him as his regular nav, Stuart, couldn’t do it. Did the 78 mile trip to there in an amazing 1 hour 5 minutes, handy as I’d realised my made-up lead to path my intercom into his was wrong, so I thought I’d have time to do it when I got there. Unfortunately Ray was a bit delayed so we didn’t get to the service area until about 8am, got everything set up and I sorted the problem once we’d scrutineered (nice to have NO worries about the car at all when scrutineering – the joys of being a navigator) and done documentation.

The entry today was strong – there was some quality machinery there, including some ex-works F2 cars (FWD, lots of power, wide bodied, such as Maxi 306 and Nissan Sunny), and the usual selection of Escorts, Cosworths, Evos and so on. A real novelty being seeded at 33, much less waiting around, although Ray wasn’t happy being “that far back”! We got to the arrival, and got everything ready for the stage. Ray was a bit nervy as he’d not driven the car in anger since 2006, but once we were ready at the start line he seemed fine, and off we went – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!!!!

This car is quick. I’ve been in some fast road cars, but you can’t really give a car anywhere near this amount of beans on the road. Ray was going for a finish, so he wasn’t snapping the car around, but it was still a very quick, smooth drive. The stage was a bit damp so it was a bit slippy, and we did the first part of the stage (there are two splits per lap, making for intense traffic situations) including the run up the steep hill really well – everything was going OK. The next time round Ray missed the split where we should have turned left, braking a bit too late and taking some cones out in the process – we later found out we got a max for that, which was a pity as it wasn’t the best laid-out split in the world, but ho hum….

One the next time round, we were going down the back straight (about 600 yards) when BOOOF! A puff of what looked like steam came from under the bonnet, and the car stopped. We’d blown an Intercooler pipe off, and Ray had to get out to disconnect the air flow meter (which would now be seeing no airflow) to allow the car to run back to the start. We did the rest of the stage at a “crawl” (Although still quicker than the Skoda, I think!), and got a time of 10:43, much quicker than the maximum we thought we’d avoided. Alas, no!

Once in service it was fairly straightforward to sort the intercooler pipe problem (although if it would hold was another matter as the flexible pipe was a little on the short side), and time to go back out again for a re-run, SS2. This time we were far less nervous – no problems, hopefully, on this run.

This time, things went better. A LOT better in fact – everything went to plan – we didn’t catch any traffic at any point, although there was an Escort Cosworth we thought we’d catch, but he was finishing as we went round for another lap. There was a mega-quick Corsa (car 20) which was as fast as the Quattro. Which wasn’t slow – I saw nearly 110 on the speedo on the back straight, but it felt faster. Ray was driving smoothly and in a really controlled manner, and it felt good; there was the odd clunk here and there (apparently from the springs on the spring seats when unloaded), but mostly just speed and grip. Going round the snake was interesting – there is a crest which is more like a flat-topped hill, and going over that the car got airborne, with the front going very light – you couldn’t see anything for a fraction of the second, and each time I hoped there’d be nothing to see but road when vision returned. All the splits went fine, all the merges were clear, and a chicane had been destroyed which helped us at one point – the Quattro is very wide which demands precision and care when going through, slowing us considerably. Still not slow though.

With everything going OK, our time? 8:18. 22 seconds off the fastest, which was good considering the controlled and safe way Ray was driving – at no point did it seem hairy (apart from the brute speed) – there were no dramas, just acceleration and braking which was always powerful but never out of control. Brilliant.

Back to service, nothing to do really. Well, not for me – I don’t know much about the car, and the guys all had their routines, so it was out of my hands.

SS3 was a small change from 2, with part of the track altered and run in the opposite direction, but mostly the same. Once more we got a good start, and saw a few cars off, some of them looking really messy. Around half way through the stage, there was a noise from the back of the car – it sounded road-speed related, as if the diff was complaining, and only happened on load. In addition as we “crawled” round to the end of the stage to avoid a maximum (which the car was so quick elsewhere would still mean around 6 minutes of loss if we took one) the engine seemed to be losing power, and becoming noisier and hotter. Dammit.

Once back in service, the back of the car was inspected and seemed OK, but would only really show up under load. Stu got in the car to listen and we noticed the exhaust seemed noisy at the front, and the car was smoking a lot. When they got back, we had another look under the bonnet and I noticed that one of the bolts that holds the exhaust part of the turbo in place (the housing that goes round the impeller) was missing, and it looked like another one too. It turned out I was right – the housing was actually loose, explaining the loss of power. There wasn’t a lot of time left, so Stu bolted it back up, and put a new bolt in as best he could. We set off to the SS4 arrival, and got there just in time. We’d have to suck it and see…

5, 4, 3, 2, 1… GO!

No boost.

No power.

No point.

We limped round and short-circuited the stage, getting a time of 1:30, as we’d done very little of it – best to save the car as it seemed to be losing a lot of oil.

Back in service, we found that the turbo had in fact seized completely. Game over.

After the disappointment had worn off (I kept it quiet, but clearly I was gutted as it’s not often I’ll get to go in a car as quick as this), it was time to pack up and go home. As I said to Ray – “no-one died”. Obviously it was a massive disappointment as we’d only really got one full stage at speed, and 2 full speed stages in total (half of SS1 and SS3), but he had a lot more to worry about than I did – I could just go home and wash my suit and that was largely it. Ray’s got to fix the mighty beast before his next event, in 5 weeks’ time. I hope he gets it all sorted, as he and all his crew are nice guys, and the car is amazing. Hopefully I can get another ride in it in the future, as it was brilliant while it lasted.